Undisclosed Desires
by HellYus
Summary: Tempsummary It's been once year since he lost his girlfriend, and at the age of 22, Ichigo Kurosaki must step up and work harder to support himself and his one year old son. Then he ends up hiring a girl who could be his girlfriend's twin as the new babysitter, who seems to go off into an all-familiar daze whenever she speaks to him. But can he even believe his own ideas? Ichihime
1. Acceptance

_**Undisclosed Desires**_

Chapter 1: Acceptance

Ichigo Kurosaki stared lazily out of the window as he fiddled with his tie. Even now, in Summer, the occasional light shower of rain appeared to run the risk of him having to drag the umbrella out of the tiny closet by his front door.

He'd been told time and time again to at least _attempt_ being content with his tiny apartment, for the sake of a little peace, but he couldn't take it for much longer. Besides, once the weather began to drop, he'd need a place somewhat more reliable with heating. The walls of the cramped two-bedroom dwelling were too thin for his liking.

Someone whimpered in the next room. Slinging his work jacket over his shoulder, he slid out of the little place he had quite vague reasoning to call his bedroom. More than anything, it was just a hole which happened to contain, barely, a creaky double bed and his bulky closet.

There were only four rooms in total. That would be the bathroom, his own room, the open, yet very small, kitchen-dining-living area, and the room he now crept into.

The one-year-old's little grey eyes lit up as he came in wearing a simple smile. It was the one he expected to see every morning, as it belonged to the closest family member he had. And then, how ironic that it was actually the man who smiled the least.

Hiroshi Kurosaki lived alone with his father, Ichigo. In the one year and several months that he had lived he had known nothing other than the warm, gentle care that his father provided. But the truth was, it wasn't always like that. Things had been different at one time in the past.

It never occurred to the child that something was missing. He was too young to know what was happening when he actually had everything he needed.

When the weather was nice, on a Sunday afternoon, if Ichigo took him out in the flimsy old stroller for some air, Hiroshi wouldn't even think about what was missing when they saw other little families, the ones with three main members.

He had spent an exact year of his life so far without his mother.

"What's wrong then, Hiro?" Ichigo lifted the stubby, night-suit adorned baby out of his crib and held him at his shoulder. The baby pressed his palm flat against his father's face and murmured a chorus of baby-gibberish.

Chuckling to himself, he strolled to the dining section of the next room and placed Hiroshi, with great difficult due to his wriggling, into his high chair. Draping his jacket, which he just realised had been beneath Hiro, over one of the chairs at the table, he checked the time on his watch.

_Five more minutes... I should probably start._

He grabbed a little plastic bowl from the kitchen cupboard and constructed a bowl of cereal. Pulling up a seat, he covered both Hiroshi and himself with little kitchen towels; the necessary protection during breakfast.

Ichigo dug the dinosaur spoon into the bowl and held it out to Hiro, who was caught off guard after pawing at the towel. He stared intently at the utensil, possibly thinking about how much he wanted it.

After testing him by poking him from several different angles, the baby gave in and latched onto the spoon with a scarily firm grip. Then there was a knock at the door.

Ichigo carefully pulled the spoon away from him and jogged over to the entrance. He swung the door open and was relieved to be met by the faces of his two sisters.

"Good morning, Ichi-nii!" Yuzu sang with a bright, cheery expression, as per usual. Karin smiled her greeting to him, half a metre behind her.

"Hey, come on in," he gestured them to follow by stepping back.

The girls skipped inside and closed the door behind them. "Where's my little nephew?" Yuzu hunted Hiroshi down and crept over to him with her arms up, which made him kick about and giggle. She sat down and took the spoon. Yuzu was a natural with young children, and still held the record for fastest feeding.

Karin hung back near the door and watched Ichigo with concern. He pulled on his jacket and picked up his briefcase. "Are you okay, Ichi-nii?" she whispered to him.

After a rather positive start to the morning, Ichigo's smile started to fade. Everything he'd been holding back rushed up and lingered at the surface. "S-sure, I mean, I have to get over it eventually, right? I have to keep going, for Hiroshi..."

"Nobody expects you to walk around like you're fine, we all feel for you... and we're here for when you need us, like today," Karin put her hand on his shoulder. She glanced over at the calender, and found that nothing was written in today's slot. Maybe it was something he didn't want to label, or even think about too much. Though, if that was the case, she couldn't blame him.

"Thanks for coming over, things are starting to get desperate. I'm gonna have to find a new babysitter soon, or they'll fire me. I think I'm starting to take advantage of their sympathy now... it's not right, I can't keep taking days off work to look after Hiro..."

"Don't worry about it," Yuzu chimed in, turning her head from where she was quite expertly shovelling the cereal into the baby, "we're always happy to come and look after him. Actually, it's the best thing about Saturdays!"

"Oh, that reminds me, Karin. If Usui calls here, can you tell him to call my cell? He said he'd ring to check with me about the flowers, and I'm just gonna wait to hear from him before I tell him that I'm dropping by the store to pick them up after work."

The white calla lilies had been specially ordered. He still felt a little awkward about all of his efforts to get the flowers, but it didn't really matter. It was the anniversary, although a painful one. He had to hold his head high and do what he needed to. Taking his girlfriend's favourite flowers to the shrine built to commemorate her death, one year after she and many other innocent people were killed, was what he needed to do.

Orihime Inoue was his everything, and she still haunted his mind, every single day. At first he thought he couldn't go on without her, but he soon remembered Hiroshi. Their son was all he had left of her, and he fought as hard as he could to hold onto that piece of her life, still lingering around to sting whenever her name was mentioned.

Of course, he couldn't blame his poor son. He was born to two young parents who both loved him dearly, and he had nothing to do with his mother's death. It was all an accident, it wasn't supposed to happen. Everything was going so well, and then one event lead to another until the point where things were looking up. And then their happiness was smashed in an instant.

Everybody was left broken. Not a single soul could hold back their tears when they heard that Orihime been a part of that terrible accident. She was like the sun, so bright and beautiful, shining all the time. It just depended on where you were standing. But the world had gotten darker for them, despite the new little sun, Hiroshi. He was just a loveable as she was, and when everyone was trying to accept her death, they came and saw the little baby, who's grey eyes so closely resembled those of his mother.

It was impossible to ignore the child. He was the gift that she had left behind her. Even though nobody could truly forget Orihime Inoue, the beautiful, adorable, charismatic, caring, generous and wonderfully weird high school student who lit the skies.

Ichigo didn't say much more to his sisters before he left for work. He trusted them more than anyone else, his father in particular, when it came to caring for his son. Not just anyone would do, and even though he was sure things could get very desperate, he would have to remember that when picking a babysitter.

Work was sometimes just too slow. It wasn't too difficult, but sometimes it was just so boring that he was thankful to have an office cubicle by the window, so there was at least something to look at while pondering over his task. He worked in a large, newly-built office tower that has gone up in the middle of Karakura when he was roughly twenty years old.

It caused a lot of trouble, but it brought many new jobs with it. Ichigo had been quick to send in his application soon after he found out that Orihime was pregnant. There were many different types of things available, but he wasn't trained for anything, so he had to find something simple.

Further than he'd hoped from simple, he got a job as a data processor. It was hard to get used to at first, but once he got the hang of it, it was easy for him. It was all numbers and figures, so with the right amount of focus it could be done.

His employers knew very well what today meant. One year since the death of the girl he loved. They were very supportive of him and his family, because he was a good worker, so they put him on lighter duties for the day. Most other people in the office were happy to put in an extra half an hour so that he could get to the shrine before it got dark.

Many of them were quite fond of Ichigo, which was quite strange to him, considering the events of his high school life. But Orihime had helped to wipe the scowl off his face, and it so rarely appeared now. People could finally see who he really was. Of course, the more shallow of the girls working there admired him for his looks, but some really cared about him.

When he reached the office, people watched him silently as he trudged through the labyrinth of cubicles until he reached his own. Throwing his jackets down on the chair, he slumped down into the seat and turned on his laptop. He stared at his thumbs as he waited.

"Ah, ohayo Kurosaki-san," his boss said as he waddled past. Gohou Hayate was a small, round man with a half-bald head. Ichigo, and many others, were lucky to have him as their boss. He was quite a generous man, and he looked out for all of his employees, Ichigo in particular.

That man had been through a very similar experience. His wife was killed in the same accident that lifted Orihime right out of his life. After it had happened, the two of them became closer through mutual sympathy.

Luckily for him, Gohou was happy to help as much as he could. He knew how much Ichigo loved his girlfriend and how much he didn't want to ship Hiroshi off to live with his grandfather. But the help would have to stop soon. It wasn't fair for Ichigo to request so much time off work any more, he needed to work harder and earn his place.

Throughout his day, he had many sympathetic words from his work colleagues, wishing him and his young son well. However, despite how thankful he was, all he could think about was how it was useless. Nobody could bring her back, and he could never feel right again without her.

The assignment he was given was quite easy. He just had to sort through some factory figures, although it did take him the whole day. But it left him with enough time for three cups of coffee, and the time to read the messages that his sisters sent to him, telling him about Hiroshi's progress on learning to walk.

Everything was finished before seven o'clock, his usual departure from work. He quickly escaped the large office building, the sun was setting outside. There were still two jobs to complete before he could go home, and they were very important.

Fortunately, the building was in a good location, the very centre of Karakura. It took five minutes to get to the flower shop. It was only a few minutes later than he walked out of the store, holding the large bouquet of lilies. The shrine was built in the cemetery by the hospital.

Ichigo reached the peaceful garden just as the sky was burning orange, and a fraction of the bright yellow sun could be seen in the horizon. The tall stone monument was in the far corner, close to the hedge. In the day, the trees seemed to part in just the right place, so that the light was shining directly down on the shrine.

He passed a teary-eyed teenage girl as he walked over, it seemed as if she had just come by to leave something, but he couldn't tell what. Fresh flowers had been placed all around the statue today, he could see that the older ones had been taken away, too.

Then his eyes flickered up to the top plaque. It read 'To commemorate the souls that were stolen in the Jentohanzu Hospital attack.' That was what they called it, an attack. He hated that word so much, because of them.

Underneath the top plate, there was a large metal plaque that read the names of everybody who was killed. He traced over them and searched until he found the name he was looking for. Orihime Inoue. Every time he saw it in print, he was sure that it was engraved on his heart.

It was the name he could never forget.

Ichigo laid down the flowers in the space closest to her name, and stared at them, wavering about slightly in the breeze. He watched the people walk past him, behind him. It wasn't too long before he watched the sky grow dark, too.

Then an elderly couple strolled over, holding a bouquet of daises. They had sad eyes, but they smiled kindly to him. He muttered a short, polite, "Good evening," and left.

When he got back in, it was creeping up very close to eight o'clock. "Ichi-nii!" Yuzu whispered from the kitchen. She waved at him with a ladle. He smiled at her and once again, peeled his jacket from his skin and threw it over one of the dining table chairs.

"I was just warming up your soup," she said, dishing a portion of it into a bowl. She skipped over and placed it at the table, where she had already prepared a plate of bread.

"Oh, arigatou," he said, in a daze but quite genuinely. He sat down and started eating.

From where he was sitting, he could see Karin and Hiroshi asleep on the sofa. His favourite picture book, 'The Ten Puppies', was on the wooden coffee table. Hiro was snuggled right up to his aunt, who was cuddling him in just as much.

His sisters left half an hour later. Hiroshi was put to bed, although he didn't really know about it. After everything was cleared away, Ichigo had nothing left to do. Tomorrow was his day off, he never worked on Sundays.

Normally, he would go to bed at the same time, because a day full of Hiroshi could be tiring. Sometimes if they were out in a street, if Hiro liked the look of a shop he wouldn't rest until he'd been in there and examined at least half of the items that he could reach at his level.

But tomorrow wouldn't be like every other Sunday. Tomorrow he would have to choose a person to have in his house every day, somebody he would have to trust to care for his son while he worked. This was a day he had anticipated for weeks, since the last babysitter left. It hurt, somehow, that he would have to choose this the day after the anniversary.

The one who cared the most couldn't be here any more, she couldn't look after her son any more... So he would just have to accept it, right? It wouldn't be easy, he knew that already.

He had to wait.

–

Ichigo woke up with a headache. The same nightmare he always had crept back up to his mind, once again. A dream in which everything was lost. He was left with nothing. It felt too real, it felt as if this would really happen if he made the wrong choice. That was why he couldn't will himself to get out of bed at first.

He stretched his arm to the patch of floor next to his bed and picked up the small frame. It contained a picture of Orihime, one he took of her wearing her yukata. He couldn't remember too well when he took it, but he guessed that it was Tanabata.

This was the only picture that he kept around. It was actually one of the only few he had. Whenever his sisters or father would ask to take a picture of them, he would say no. He thought he wouldn't need any, and that she would be right by him forever...

With that memory, he put the frame back and rolled out of bed. He was only wearing an old, slightly tight t-shirt and long pyjama pants. After checking his watch, also lying on the floor next to his bed, he saw that it was quite late. Almost ten o'clock.

He shuffled into Hiro's room and watched the young boy sleep. Then he began to wonder what he and his aunt's had been doing on the previous day. But at least, whatever it was, it wore him out. Hiro's grey eyes fluttered open, and his mouth curved into an 'o' as he yawned.

"Morning, Hiro," Ichigo grinned, and held out his hand. The baby grabbed at it, and played with his fingers with a look of deep concentration. He certainly had no idea what was supposed to be going later that day.

Thinking more clearly about it, there were only four candidates. He would only spend a couple of minutes talking to each, to talk over their applications. It was so simple, yet he felt strangely worked up about it.

_This is stupid._

He sighed and lifted Hiroshi out of his crib. It was creeping close to eleven, the time of the arrival of the first possible babysitter. At this point, Hiroshi had been fed and dressed, and was now sitting back in his crib, testing the durability of a rubber cow.

Ichigo was barely dressed, standing at the mirror in the bathroom. A plain glare stared back at him through the mirror as he rubbed his wet hair with a towel, dressed only in a pair of dark blue jeans. He wasn't sure exactly what he was looking at through the steam, but he wasn't too proud of it. This was an image of a person he never wanted to be. An Ichigo Kurosaki without one of the people he swore to protect, without the girl he came to love more than anything else in existence.

All he could see was a man who failed at protecting what he loved, one who couldn't do his job properly, and most importantly, one who failed at being a good father.

Again, he exhaled deeply, with a subtle kind of frustration. Then he pulled his shirt over his head and stepped out of the bathroom. Just as he pulled a folder of applications out from the small drawer under the little table by the entrance, there was a knock on the door. He cursed at himself.

_No,_ he thought, _this is fine. I need to do this. It's for Hiro._

Perhaps that was debatable. It could have been for others to. For his tiny family consisting of himself and Hiro, because Ichigo needed to support his son by working. For his workplace, because he couldn't rely on them to give him time off to look after his son when his family couldn't make it over to look after him. Lastly, for Orihime.

She was never supposed to leave them, or him. She loved them both so much that surely this was some kind of godly punishment. Her son deserved the best care that he could find, because his own mother couldn't be reached any more. So he would just have to find it.

He inhaled and pulled open his door. Quickly pondering over how he seemed to be exhaling more than inhaling recently, he saw the first applicant. Then his heart stopped, his lungs sank and his stomach twisted.

Whatever and whoever was standing at the door, their grey eyes and auburn hair looked a lot like a girl he used to know.

–

**Don, don, don.**

**Hiya, I'm a moron so I apparently just can't explain myself at the top of the first chapter of a story. This is my new fan fiction! It's Ichihime-ful and possibly rather angsty and fluffy because that's how I roll.**

**I shouldn't be doing this considering the other stories I'm committed to updating, but pfft, screw the rules. I couldn't resist this idea once it popped up in my head full of unicorns, rainbows and brocoli clouds that rain blood.**

**Normally, I don't begin a story by uploading just the first chapter, either. I usually prepare a couple to start myself off in advance. But I can't be bothered, and this isn't going to be a super-duper-long story, definitely no more than twenty chapters and perhaps an epilogue if everything turns out beautiful.**

**But! Here's where you come in! I won't have a lot of interest in this, although I'm liking the idea of it, unless I see that some of you reader folk want to see more! So! It would be really lovely if you left a review, telling me what you thought of this!**

**Lots of love to you, stranger, please return!3**

**~HellYus**


	2. Harumi Amaterasu

_**Undisclosed Desires**_

Chapter 2: Harumi Amaterasu

_Previously: He inhaled and pulled open his door. Quickly pondering over how he seemed to be exhaling more than inhaling recently, he saw the first applicant. Then his heart stopped, his lungs sank and his stomach twisted._

_Whatever and whoever was standing at the door, their grey eyes and auburn hair looked a lot like a girl he used to know._

Now that all of the pain he had buried deep inside him had jumped right back up and gotten stuck in his throat, he didn't know what to do. His mind raced around in circles as he looked at her. What was going on? Was this some kind of trick?

His glances shifted just slightly and he surveyed the street behind her. No sign of movement. Then he looked back at her. She had that same shade of auburn radiated from her locks of soft hair. He couldn't even count how many times his fingers had gotten tangled up in an identical waterfall of orange.

The stranger had the same pale skin. It was light in a very elegant way, although it made her look quite fragile. Like a porcelain doll. But she certainly wasn't fragile, in fact; if she had been, it would have been very dangerous paired with her clumsy personality. He remembered her smooth skin so well, how it would shiver beneath his touch, although it was always very warm. He always had to be very gentle with that pale skin.

Her eyes were the same ones that he saw on his son, despite the field of long, dark lashes that were much more intense on _her_ face. But the cloudy blue-grey iris was exactly the same. If you went right up close you could see your own reflection as if looking into rippled water.

And her lips... he wanted to know how it would be to kiss them again. But then he fell back into reality.

"O-ohayo gozaimasu!" she stuttered nervously and quickly, "Hajimemashite, Kurosaki-san!" The girl bowed her head to him. He could see the bright shade of red on her face through her hair. Then he realized that he must have looked like a creep, staring at her for several seconds .

"Kon'nichiwa..." he replied just as fast, but with a little less enthusiasm. Or a lot less. "P-Please come in..."

Ichigo stepped aside and closed the door after the girl took a shaky few steps inside. He picked up the folder and scanned through the application sheets, remembering that he had forgotten to organise the pile, so that the final four applicants were at the top.

When she noticed his struggling, she nervously whispered, "My n-name is Harumi Amaterasu," in an briefly formal tone. He nodded to himself and pulled out the sheets containing her information. Ichigo stationed himself on one of the chairs and politely gestured for her to sit down. She obediently sat herself down across from him.

"So... you just recently moved to Karakura?" he asked her, looking down at the text.

Amaterasu nodded her head, "Hai, I lived here once before, but I moved away after I... lost my family." Her confirming response threw his thoughts into chaos, but he pushed his theories aside and swallowed the questions lingering in the back of his throat, the ones mainly regarding her familiar appearance.

"Oh... I'm sorry," he coughed, "So you applied for this job before you moved here again?"

She nodded once again, "That's right, I decided I wanted to come back and thought I should try to make arrangements, for when I arrived."

They had both switched to business mode and were beginning to get through full sentences without pausing, and their voices became serious. But then, this was about someone's job as well as the care of someone's child.

Ichigo went through some more of the information written on the paper before his eyes, and Amaterasu confirmed everything and fully explained herself and her motives. Right on queue, Hiroshi began to softly cry in his room.

"Oh, that's Hiroshi..." Ichigo said, getting up from his chair.

Amaterasu quickly stood up, "Please, allow me." She smiled kindly towards her possible employer, who studied her expression. Ichigo nodded and pointed her in the direction of Hiroshi's room. They walked over to the door frame.

She stepped inside and crept slowly up to the crib. Ichigo briefly saw her eyes glisten as she watched the baby. Even Hiroshi had swapped his usual neutral face for a look of curiosity. They looked at each other for a moment before Amaterasu reached the very edge of the crib's railings.

Hiroshi pouted and reached one of his short arms out and spoke to her with a few murmured baby words. Ichigo saw the smile curve at the corners of her mouth as she lifted the baby into her arms. Hiroshi explored her face with his hands, earning a giggle from his potential new babysitter. She cuddled him in and turned to Ichigo. "He's adorable," she smiled.

"Sure is," he reached out and ruffled the strands on hair that he had. Amaterasu laughed as Hiroshi held onto her hand. The three of them moved into the living space and sat down on the couch. "So do you have any other questions?" she asked, bouncing Hiroshi up and down on her knees.

"Uh, I guess not. I'm sorry, I didn't really have much to ask in the beginning, but I thought... you know, I should see how you are with him before I make any decisions," he said, scratching the back on his head, "But I gotta say, you're a natural with kids."

"Thank you," she turned her gaze from the toddler up to Ichigo, "people have always told me that, for some reason."

"Didn't you say you worked in a Nursery last year?"

She nodded her head, "That's right, for almost a whole year. ...Don't worry! I wasn't fired or anything like that, I just decided that I wanted to leave Morikazukae."

"Ah, okay. Morikazukae... that's south from here, right?"

"Yup, almost fifty miles away! I can hardly remember what originally possessed me to move there, anyway!" she giggled to herself.

They seemed to have completed half an hours worth of small talk by the time Amaterasu got ready to leave. Ichigo couldn't help but feel at ease when speaking to her, although it had almost caused him to forget that he had other candidates to interview, but she had a certain effect that he decided not to look too deeply into.

"Thank you very much for your time, Kurosaki-san," she politely tipped her head to him as she stepped back towards the door.

"Thank _you_," he smiled, "for making this a lot easier, I have no idea what I'm doing with this interviewing business. Your number was on the application, right? I'll let you know what I've decided sometime in the next few hours."

"That's great, I look forward to speaking with you again later."

Within a few minutes, she was long out of his view, at the window. Ichigo slammed his palm into his face and rubbed his eyes. He was sure he had just been deceived. _Who and what was that?_

One year, one day and probably a couple of hours after his girlfriend was taken away from him, a girl who was exactly identical to her showed up to apply for a job? His reaction to his own thoughts almost matched his heart rate and breathing pattern from when he saw her at his door.

Pulling out his phone quickly, he pulled at the collar of his shirt. As soon as his screen lit up, he typed in the first number at the top of his head and pressed it to his ear. Ichigo tapped his foot violently as it rung. By the time it was answered, there was a dent, or rather almost-hole in the cheap floorboards.

"Hello, Ichi?" Yuzu's voice asked.

"Hey, Yuzu" he spoke and froze.

"...Is something wrong?"

He tried to remind himself of why he was calling, but nothing came to mind. At least not for several moments. "Ichigo...?"

Harumi Amaterasu. Of course.

"Uh... sorry, I just wanted to ask you... what was in the pie?"

"The pie?"

"Yeah."

"What pie?"

"You know, the one from last night..."

"Ichi, I made soup last night."

He mentally facepalmed and coughed, "Uh, okay, sorry."

Then he hung up before she could say anything.

–

His thoughts had been running wild all afternoon. In fact, he could hardly focus when he was interviewing the other possible babysitters. The day had practically gone to waste. He couldn't make a decision right after what he had seen. Amaterasu.

It was, first of all, unlikely that there would be anyone else in nearby towns that had similar features to Orihime Inoue. It was then very unlikely that anyone else was identical to her. Besides, she claimed that she was from Karakura, so why had he never seen her before? Sure, it was a big place, but if he had ever seen her face, then he would have remembered seeing someone who looked exactly like his girlfriend.

Everything was a mystery, and he didn't know if he could get to the bottom of it. Did he want to? Of course, if Orihime was involved, at least in his head, then it seemed important. But how? Was it fair to Amaterasu? Probably not.

It would have been very simple to just play around with the few pieces of information he listened to and pick one of the other babysitters. But how could he ignore her face when it was so comforting and familiar?

But then, he couldn't ignore the fact that he could end up sub-consciously thinking that she was like Orihime. Like she had been reincarnated, or something like that. But then... she was a lot like Orihime. They had the same voice, looks and as far as he could tell, personality. That was surely enough to say they were the same.

He wanted to know more, slowly creep up on her with questions. Not in a creepy way, he was just overly curious of what was going on, because it made no sense.

Whatever his thoughts told him, he had already made his decision.

Fishing the number out of his folder of applicants, he dialled it and waited. Several rings buzzed by his ear. Then her voice answered, "Moshi moshi!"

He smiled to himself at the hint of excitement in her voice.

"Hello, Harumi Amaterasu? This is Kurosaki Ichigo."

"Oh, yes! Hello!"

"I just though I should probably let you know in a call rather than a text, I decided to pick you. I thought you were good with Hiroshi, and that's all I was really looking for," he said, trying to stop himself from laughing as he heard a high-pitched, inaudible squeak.

"R-really?" she cried, "Thank you so much!"

"I hope tomorrow isn't too early to start?"

"Not at all, I-I'll see you then!"

–

Almost everyday seemed to be the same. Ichigo knew that quite well, and he was used to it. But things were finally supposed to change. Life would become a little easier, and he wouldn't have to worry too much. Or perhaps, he would only have to worry more.

Right on time, there was a knock on his door. He checked his watch, and found that he was due to leave very soon. He opened the door to a bright greeting.

"Ohayo gozaimasu, Kurosaki-san!"she repeated her words from the previous day with a noticeable rise in confidence.

Ichigo nodded to her, "Please come inside." She followed him in and watched him pull on his work jacket, and gather his equipment.

"I already fed Hiro this morning, so don't worry about that. Please, just get to know him and find your way around, and take good care of him," he said, trying to fasten his tie, "I'm sorry, I'm gonna be late if I don't hurry, but thank you for working for me, this is very important to me."

Amaterasu's cheeks glowed with a gentle red hue as she bowed her head, "Of course, I will take the best care of your son, and thank you so much for giving me this job!"

Ichigo shot her a final glance before he left, loudly slamming the door behind him. The girl waited. What was next? She peered around the room and tried to remind herself of the location of Hiroshi's bedroom. It came back to her as soon as she heard him muttering something.

She almost skipped to the child's room, her long skirt flowing behind her. Hiro giggled as she bounded over to the crib. "Good morning, little Hiroshi," she whispered, reaching down to pick him up. The baby explored her face with his hands, just to check that she was the same woman he'd seen before. He was oddly good at remembering people he had met before.

Amaterasu rocked him gently in her arms, which he fit perfectly into, as she wandered back into the living space. She sat down on the couch and sat the baby down beside her, with his back to the side. Hiroshi reached his fingers out to her, and she let him hold her hands.

"So, little boy... what would you like to do today?"

The toddler produced some more gibberish.

"Hiroshi," she spun his grip around, her voice like a beautiful song, "where should we go, little boy? What do you like to do?"

Again, he gave her a few confused 'words' and curled up into a ball.

"...You can't talk yet?" she pouted, stroking his hands with her thumbs, "You're eighteen months old, little boy..."

His chubby cheeks dropped and his face scrunched up a little.

"Tell me what you want, Hiro," she sung, "do you want to learn to talk?" Her long fingers swooped in to tickle him. He started to kick and throw his arms about.

"No!" he giggled.

She froze and looked carefully at him. "Did you... just say 'no'?" she grinned.

"No!" Hiro screeched in laughter.

Amaterasu squealed along with him and lifted him into her arms. "Was that your first word, huh? Little boy?" she asked, tickling him all over again.

"No," he replied once more.

–

Ichigo sighed to himself as he walked out of the corner store with a shopping bag in one hand and his briefcase in the other. He'd tried to finish all of his work early, and had almost succeeded. In the end, he'd just managed to complete to more difficult load of work an hour before he was supposed to leave.

His boss knew he'd been going crazy all day, thinking of Hiro and the new babysitter. He offered to let him go early, as long as the fairly short stack of paper work was on his desk, in order, by twelve o'clock the next morning. The offer was too kind to resist and he'd stuffed the paper quickly in to his bag and left as quickly as he could.

It was a little early for it, but he decided to stop by the corner store as he went past. He only purchased some more baby food and boxed sushi for dinner. When picking his box out, another accidentally fell into his basket and the idea sparked from there.

He knew it was stupid and dangerous, but he just couldn't ignore his own thoughts. Ichigo came up to his steps and quietly opened the door. Although he knew it was a likely scenario, he walked in to find Amaterasu and Hiro curled up on the couch. 'The Ten Puppies' was on her lap, next to the toddler. They both looked up at him.

"Oh, hello Kurosaki-san!" she said, snapping into attention. Her back straightened sharply, although careful not to shake Hiro.

"Hi," he said, dumping his briefcase down by where his shoes were lay. Then he smiled at his son, he was vibrating with anticipation. "Have you had a good day?" he asked, taking his son from Amaterasu, who had lifted him up.

He looked at her once he realized that he had left her arms, and she shook her head at him with a smirk. "No, Daddy," he said.

Ichigo's eyebrows furrowed as he stared at his son, over to Amaterasu, and back to Hiroshi. "Did you just...?" he whispered.

"No, Daddy," he said again and shortly afterwards erupted into a fit of laughter.

"Harumi-san?" Ichigo laughed along with the toddler and stroked his head.

"We worked on that all afternoon!" she giggled, "I had to repeat that to him and shake my head a lot so that it would work."

"How did you get him to talk?" he grinned, "People keep telling me he should know about ten words at his age, but he just never picked them up."

"Some children just take a little longer! You just have to encourage them every so often, but not so much that they get bored," Amaterasu smiled.

"It's amazing that you got two words out of him in just a day, though. I'm jealous, actually," he said jokingly, swaying the baby slightly.

"Well, don't you worry about his development! I'll be here to take care of him and teach him whatever I can," she said reassuringly, and she climbed to her feet.

"I really appreciate that," he said, setting Hiro down on the floor, next to his pile of toys. He dug in and started fiddling and biting whatever he could lift with his tiny hands.

Amaterasu looked up at the clock, "A-ano... Were you early home today? I'm sorry, it's just I thought you said you finished work later than this... perhaps it's my mistake..."

"No," he said, "you're right. I just worked really quickly today because I was kinda worried about Hiroshi... so I came home a littler earlier. I got extra dinner, actually, do you have any plans? There were some... questions... that I wanted to ask you."

–

**That was a bad ending, okay... Hopefully, things will get a little more interesting in the next chapter! Those silly introductions were so slow and boring that it took me 5 months to write them, that's my excuse xD**

**I hope I didn't disappoint too much, my plans were supposed to bring out the good stuff several chapters into the story, so here everything is a bit dull... I'll keep going if I can. Such paaain.**

**I would just love-love-love a review to push me into another update. Scientists proved that 9/10 ten times, a review from one of you lovely people makes me really want to write the next chapter! Arigatou reader-san!**

**~HellYus**


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